Nepal

Published by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the book - The life of food in Nepal - "celebrates the role of food in the lives and culture of the Nepali people" and is a "powerful portrayal of the in credible beauty, diversity and harshness of Nepal's land scape and a tribute to the re silient spirit of her farmers".

Nicole Menage took over as the World Food Programme's Country Representative in Nepal last autumn, and promptly found herself in the middle of a funding crunch. She spoke to Nepali Times about the impact this is likely to have millions who receive assistance from the organisation.

Production of food grains for this year is generally good with the prospect of having a marginal food surplus in the country. Nepal has been facing pressure to keep the production up to meet the increasing needs of the growing population.(..)This crop situation update is the result of a joint assessment by the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MoAC), World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on the production status of these summer crops and to assess the outlook of the winter crops, mainly wheat across the country.

The United Nations and its humanitarian partners in Nepal are rushing aid to almost 5,000 people left homeless when fire swept through two refugee camps in the east of the Himalayan country. (..) A Government-led committee has been set up to coordinate immediate emergency aid, and UNHCR, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and their non-governmental organization (NGO) and humanitarian partners (..) have started distributing food, blankets, cooking kits and tarpaulins for shelter.

Recently, the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Food Price Index surpassed the upper bound reached during the peak of the food crisis in 2008. The World Bank says global food crisis has reached “dangerous levels”. In Nepal, the World Food Programme (WFP) argues that about 3.7 million people are at risk of food insecurity.

(..) Nepal as the least developed and low-income country in South Asia has been facing severe food insecurity problem as the latest World Food Program statistics show that 3.7 million people are at the risk of moderate or severe food insecurity due to severe draught, sustained high food prices, decline in agricultural production, unrest and the impact of global economic crisis.

UNHCR and WFP have decided to distribute ration aid to Bhutanese refugees camping in eastern Nepal as per the agreement. The aid will be distributed immediately in coordination with Camp’s Ration Management Committee, said secretary of Shanischare Camp Champa Singh Rai.

The government of Nepal needs to improve irrigation management to achieve higher agricultural productivity and overcome “dismal” water and crop shortages, experts say. (..) According to UN World Food Programme (WFP), the 600,000 people living in the far and mid-west regions at the base of the Himalayan mountains - also referred to as the hills - have the most problems growing and accessing enough food to survive.

The European Union is providing a grant assistance of Euros 1,047,000 (around NPR 100.15 million) to allow the World Food Programme (WFP) to transfer its food security phase classification monitoring system to the Government of Nepal and to strengthen the capacity of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MoAC) to monitor and analyse food security in the country.

2011 has been designated as the Year of Tourism for Nepal with the aim of attracting more travellers to boost the country’s flagging economy and to alleviate poverty. (..) People survive from day to day in villages up to 5000m overlooking steep terraced strips, though only 2 per cent of the land is cultivable. Most households produce enough food to last three to five months and are dependent on UN World Food Programme relief.